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McFlurry commercial incites McFury in South Africa

Every weekday, PR Daily associate editor Alan Pearcy highlights the day’s most compelling stories and amusing marginalia on the Web in this, #TheDailySpin.

What’s that about no good deed going unpunished?

McDonald’s was reminded of this when a spot promoting its McFlurry sundae garnered a chillier reception than anticipated. Shot and aired only in South Africa—home to millions of impoverished children—the spot was panned by critics, who say the fast food chain exploited real orphans from a Sakhumzi home. The ad features the children traveling to the restaurant where they each receive the signature ice cream treat. The kids then venture to a local nursing home where they share their desserts with the residents. Daily Mail said the commercial’s press agency, DDB, accompanied the video with the following statement:

“Based on the premise that everybody has got something to give, we set out to spread happiness with this live stunt commercial. No actors, just a real orphanage and old age home, and one take to get the moment.”

The dilemma tarnishing the Golden Arches in the U.S. appears to be its low standing among millennials. According to Advertising Week, McDonald’s doesn’t even crack the demographic’s top 10 favorite restaurants.

Unlike McDonald’s, we expect stunts from Hollywood, which makes it slightly less surprising to see a recent collection compiled by mental_floss of 14 spots shot by famous movie directors, including Wes Anderson, Sophia Coppola, and Michael Bay.

When I think of science fiction fans, I picture a room of people dressed in self-made Stormtrooper costumes paying Dungeons and Dragons. Of course, that would be buying into a stereotype—something social media managers often face. Business 2 Community outlines the five worst misconceptions about a company or brand’s digital forerunners.

But can Carson Daly overcome the stereotypes of his “TRL” days to make it as more than a glorified talent show host? Viewers of NBC’s “Today” will find out this week, when Daly guest hosts. According to The Huffington Post, the move departs from the program’s usual roster of substitute co-hosts, as the morning show pushes hard to move past recent negative publicity. NBC News chairman Patricia Fili-Krushel told the Los Angeles Times:

"When you are No. 1, it's easy to stop taking chances. I think we just stopped innovating."

Like NBC, if you feel that your business or brand needs to move its marketing mix beyond the Dark Ages, HubSpot’s InBound Marketing blog suggest seven ways of modernizing your PR strategy for the 21st century.

It’s also a modern occurrence to see more working professionals turn into full-time freelancers. This doesn’t mean they have to work from home, mind you. From Berlin and New York to Singapore and Brazil, Business Insider provides 15 free office spaces for freelancers around the world.

If you were to ask professional photographer Al Lemire, going freelance is perhaps the most liberating experience of someone’s career. In a guest post for Big Leap Creative’s blog titled “The Four Most Joyous Words,” Lemire explains why saying, “This is my resignation,” could be the path to career fulfillment.

On the other hand, it was these 13 everyday words with awesomely weird origins that BuzzFeed took joy in:

I imagine the joy continued for the Associated Press and The New York Times after a court put limits on the amount of content an Internet scraping service can take without paying for it. The move helps further outline the parameters of what counts as “fair use” under copyright law. Jeff John Roberts of paidContent explains more on the story.

Meanwhile, Mashable explains the story behind a recent Tic-Tac-Toe challenge brewing between Kit Kat and Oreo on Twitter. After U.K. resident Laura Ellen expressed her apparent love of chocolate by tweeting that she followed both the candy bar and cookie brands, Kit Kat responded two days later, hoping to settle the score for Laura’s affection by tweeting a picture of the classic game board. Never one to go down without a fight—right, AMC—Oreo made its move:

On the contrary, a stealthy dog seems to have won in a fairly one-sided game of hide-and-seek, photo-bombing every image that his owners used in a recent Craigslist ad. Reports New York Daily News, Otis—a Great Dane-German shepherd mix—drew enough attention that the “pet-friendly” apartment advertised rented in less than 24 hours.

The same success wasn’t shared by a different Craigslist ad posted about a stolen iPhone from St. Paddy’s Day—that is, unless you count the listing piece of literary excellence that resulted from the thievery. Read the scathingly hilarious open letter to the swiper of her smartphone here. (Full disclosure: The author of the post is a friend of mine.)

Is there something you think we should include in our next edition of #TheDailySpin? Tweet me @iquotesometimes with your suggestions. Thanks in advance.